Tag: food

Some people consider me as an ideal example of a person who lives to eat. I love hogging out every now and then and my bank balance will tell you the story.

Way back in College, Way back when we started watching Highway on My Plate.. i had this dream of having a job of travelling and reviewing food. Man vs Food introduced us to food challenges. What a life i thought, even though it had its own pitfalls health wise. But nevertheless everyone has a dream job and this is one of mine.

I’ve been in Chennai for the past one year and i’ve been loving the food here. When me and my friends initially got placed in TCS and booked our tickets to Chennai, our friends and relatives were apprehensive about the food in Chennai. They talked about stereotyped food everywhere and this scared us a bit. But surprise, surprise..our gastronomical journey so far has been awesome. True there have been ups and downs but generally i’ve had some really good food. It helped that i have a group of friends who love to eat as well. In the past one year, i’ve eaten at more than 60 restaurants in Chennai and my Burrp! profile is proof of that 😀 We also had this little side project titles ‘ Experiments and Food ‘ going for sometime until it became too tough to gather pictures and upload them to one place.

Now the fun part came when Burrp! emailed me and asked me if i was interested in reviewing Azulia, where a Greek food festival was taking place. THIS was BIG! I was so surprised!! The email said that i could take a friend so i called up @Nievu as she’s accompanied me to most of the restaurants and also because she could offer a vegetarian perspective to the food.

So the date was set, 11th November was the night and boy was it fun. Except for the part where we paid 400 for the cab to drop us back, the night was epic! Wish i could take part in more such free food… erm Food Reviews.

Its been like 3 months in Chennai and ILP is done. ILP was like an extra semester of College. When it began we used to be slightly apprehensive about the people from the other colleges. During group activities we felt handicapped trying to get people to do work and also by people’s sense of humour. It was amazing how closte-minded people could be. But we somehow survived it. Got into our streams and finally passed after much distress. I did however meet some amazing people. I became SPOC. Had a great time with MS70 and made new friends. Like someone said “ILP is your honeymoon in the Software sector”. Pity, that its over. Oh yeah i think i learnt a bit of Java as well.

So Ambattur’s done and so is our beloved Anna Nagar West Extn. I know the room is a cramped one where the 4 of us stay but it was close to a lot of places. Anna Nagar, 2nd Avenue is a lovely street. Will Miss it. Also sad that we didnt visit all the 3rd Avenue food joints.

Places I Love:

Cafe H awesome food joint.Parfait 3 wouldnt have discovered it if we hadnt gone that night for dessert.FoodSpot for the Breakfast everyday.Ganga Sweets for the Cold Badam.Kairali for the homely “kerala” rice and Chicken Biryani.Rajasthani Dhaba for the unlimited Thali.Nalas for the Aapam and Sweet Lassi.SeaShell late discovery but a filling sizzler.Pasta Bar for being italian.Sarvana Bhavan for the Sunday Morning breakfasts! oh and awesome tea.

This was an Ode to our stay here at S2, Accord Buliders, Anna Nagar West Extn.

We went House Hunting to find a place closer to OMR as thats where our offices are located. We hunted a lot before we fell in love with this one slightly expensive place. Yes, I got yelled at for not saving enough. Dreaming about moving there this weekend.

Things have Changed. Circumstances forced this move to Chennai. Its been a month here so far and the schedule is hectic. I have just got down to blogging again. For people who do visit to check my blog posts, Geekd.in would be the place i would tend to update more often.

So how has Chennai been so far? Not entirely unfriendly. I knew that Language was to be a problem and Water too. We dropped by in October to find a place to stay at Ambattur as our ILP centre was close by. We ended up with a small room in Annanagar West Extn., after a wild 3 days which saw us roaming around in marshy areas finding something that sounds like ‘Abhinjyam Stage 1’ Flats in Mogappair West at night and Going to the MMM Hospital to get Bottled water at 11pm. Lot of New experiences definitely. But then every one of us who came here had their own list to share.

So back in November, we left Mangalore on 31st. Around 32 of us travelled in Train to Chennai. That was the beginning of our Adventure. Arriving at Chennai for the third time in 2 years , i had grown accustomed to some of the things. And we learnt more along the way in the past one month.

1. One of the basic things we were confused about were bus journeys. The Buses had fares which were completely indecipherable with respect to bus type and distance covered. Finally i was enlightened to the fact that the bus fares are ruled by the bus boards. The White board buses are the cheapest and the Blue the costliest (i think). Also a M prefixed to the bus means you get charged 1 buck extra. Travel is cheap here in Chennai. This link helps us at times. Rab.in.

2. Food didn’t turn out to be a problem although the notorious white rice is everywhere. Never try Non-Indian food at Vegetarian hotels no matter how good they are supposed to be. Had a bad experience ordering American Chopsuey at Saravana Bhavan. But i Found their tea heavenly and its pricing (Rs 16) too.

3. Language was and still is a problem. Thanks to Karthik and Rathan, i can survive with my limited knowledge of Tamil. Broken English is a great help at times.

4. We discovered Share Autos as a more viable option over the meterless autos any day. There were lots who got looted by rickshaws. Travel can be dangerous too. We had a ride where the driver thought he was playing ‘Grand Theft Share Auto’. He broke a lot of those so-called traffic rules. But then not many people in Chennai seem to stick to them. I’ve had many close shaves trying to cross the road here.

5. Chennai has freaky weather patterns. Cyclone one day, Sunny the next. I Caught a cold thanks to that and had sore throat thanks to the water. Bathing is horrible due to the salt water and feels almost redundant.

6. Chennai has an English Radio Channel, Chennai Live! 104.8 fm It plays good music and glad i discovered it. i Bought a new Nokia 5030 to manage my new Chennai number and this was a pleasant surprise.

7. Diwali in Chennai is like being in a WarZone. People just burst crackers left and right, On the road and near vehicles. Scary stuff. And deafening too.

Who would have thought that this would change? Who’s gonna wait? Well we did. No going home early. 4th semester was the turning point. oh and it now costs 16 for express. Evenings were spent usually on bus 23 with the Rs. 10 ticket.

So if you forget the fact that we also dropped by at fast food joints on our way home in the evening i would spend a minimum of 75 on a day. Keep in mind my monthly allowance is 1500. How did i manage? My ‘fest’ income supplemented it. Pity, thats ended.

Thats a Chefs Double Decker Burger, which i had a couple of days back 🙂 after the last sessionals of this semester. it contains chicken tikka, sausage, egg, cheese and the regular burger stuff. Costs 70 bucks. but definitely money well spent.

well thats the name of the college fest which kicked of today with the traditional day celebrations along with fashion show and an eastern Band show also. dont know how it was though we werent there. we were busy with other stuff like attending our friend Rashmi’s sis s wedding reception in Mangalore. Later we hung out at Cherry Square for a while sipping Juices and shakes before going home 🙂

The day worked out well except for the fact that 5 marks have been deducted from our sessionals for the mass bunk 😦 i pity the single digit people.